[hga]

You're ignoring the much more strict training and operating systems in place for them, when an instructor pilot corrects their mistakes before they become fatal. Once they "graduate" to a certain level of pilot, or for a given plane model, they still have a copilot who they might be training, but who is also supposed to point out when they are making a mistake.

The demands are also different: pilots don't get called out of their normal schedule to be asked about a problem they observed with plane X the last time they flew it (rather, they're supposed to report it at the end of the flight and mechanics will look at it).

Emergencies also have a different nature, I gather its much more likely you'll be short flyable planes than air crews. A look at the Berlin airlift might be instructive. A book I recently read on the WWII air war in the South Pacific said that was true for both sides. Although of course the rules in wartime are different.